ANALYSIS WEATHER AND CURRENT CONDITION ABOUT SHIRETOKO MARITIME ACCIDENT 2022

Abstract

 In April 2022, a pleasure boat sank on the Shiretoko Peninsula in a maritime accident in which all the crew members were missing. The search activities were conducted from the next day, however the search activities was difficult and has not been completed to this day. In this study, we assessed the situation in the sea area after the accident and considered the factors that made it difficult to find the missing persons. In the weather, the cold front passed through the area on the accident day, followed by a change in wind direction and a sudden increase the wind velocity and the wave height. Immediately after the search began, many crew members were found in the vicinity of the Shiretoko Peninsula, and this situation was grasped by the calculations of the virtual colorant diffusion. Furthermore, the current was calculated by the wind driven current and the tidal current. A few days later, the crew was found on Kunashiri Island and Sakhalin. According to the drift calculations, the winds at sea changed after the accident due to the influence of the high pressure located to the east of the area. And, the currents gradually spread in a northwesterly direction while oscillating from east to west over the waters from the tip of the Shiretoko Peninsula to the northern part of Kunashiri Island.